It is well known in the medical field to capture an x-ray image for diagnostic purposes. Once captured, the image can be distributed and/or analyzed. Some health professionals prefer to distribute and/or analyze the x-ray image in digital form. Known modalities/methods can be employed to obtain a digital medical image. For example, a medical image can be captured using x-ray film and then digitized into a digital medical image using a digitizer. In computed radiography, an image is captured on a stimulable storage phosphor medium and then converted to a digital image using CR reader. With a digital radiography system, a digital medical image can be captured directly, for example, MRIs and CTs.
Once a digital image is obtained, the image can be reviewed and/or processed for diagnostic purposes. As part of the review/diagnosis, it may be desired to focus in on a region of interest within the digital image. The ability to quickly and accurately select an area of interest is therefore important to a radiologist.
US Patent Application No. 2001/0024200 (Gupta) is directed to a method of providing a display for a graphical user interface in which a user may define a selected region of a subject image.
US Patent Application No. 2002/0136466, is directed to a radiation image displaying apparatus for displaying a target region to be diagnosed or trace-read.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,649 (Schoeters) is directed to a processing method in radiographic image recording systems.
An integrated radiological information system having display enhancement tools, including a Frame and Fill function, is disclosed in two papers: (1) “The use of IRIS image enhancement facilities on digital images by radiologists during a clinical trial at the Ottawa Civic Hospital”, by M. Coristine et al., SPIE Proceedings, Vol. 1233, Medical Imaging IV: Image Processing, Feb. 6-8, 1990, Pages 426-438; and (2) “Comparative evaluation of reporting analog films versus digital images using IRIS”, by Millward et al., SPIE Proceedings, Vol. 1232, Medical Imaging IV: Image Capture and Display, Feb. 4-5, 1990, Pages 2-12.
While such systems may have achieved certain degrees of success in their particular applications, there is a need to for a method for selecting a region of interest quickly and accurately, and displaying the selected region of interest for viewing.